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'Richard II' a divine way to round out Colorado Shakespeare Festival

By Liza Williams Camera Theater Critic

Posted:
07/26/2013 09:20:06 AM MDT

Updated:
07/26/2013 09:28:07 AM MDT

Key members of the wonderful production of "Richard II," from left to right: Geoffrey Kent as Mowbray, Jamie Ann Romero as Queen Isabel, Chip Persons as Richard II and Steven Cole Hughes as Bolingbroke. (Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)

"The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)": 7:30 p.m. July 27, July 31 and Aug. 10

"Richard II," the final play to open during the 2013 Colorado Shakespeare Festival, brings a perfect balance to the troupe's season, countering the interesting and unlikely choices found in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Macbeth" with a restrained and precise production.

"Richard II" starts off with stately delivery of lines and formal staging that devolve as King Richard grapples with his eventual loss of power and abdication.

This is a stunningly beautiful production in which director James Symons creates one balanced and skillfully composed image after another.

The relationships between the king and the dukes, earls and lords in this play are complicated and sometimes difficult to follow, and the legacy of grudges and betrayals from the War of the Roses are not given much exposition in the script (Shakespeare's audience would have known them well). Anyone not well acquainted with the factions, feuds and political moves found in this play would do well to arrive early enough to read the informative plot synopsis. Much of the early action is inferred but not explicitly stated in the script.

James Symons has directed more productions for CSF than anyone else, and in "Richard II," Symons uses stage movement to produce a finely crafted deconstruction of the formality as Richard's own grasp on his power crumbles. The arrangement of actors on stage -- their gestures, their approach to language, the restraint in their actions -- all become looser and wilder as Richard's grasp on his power wanes. Square, straight stances turn to curves and slumps, and it's executed with such craft that it wholly supports the story without calling attention to itself.

Early in the play, the characters do not reveal their humanity or frailties, but as "Richard II" progresses, that decorous front unravels and the man underneath the monarch appears. Again, this is supported and enhanced not only by the staging but by the production design, led by Hugh Hanson's costumes.

In the opening scenes of the production, Hanson's costumes rival the most beautiful I have ever seen. Per my notes from the evening: "They are so beautiful, they made me drool."

Hanson's design parallels the transition from royal exhibitions of power to a touching human story of how Richard grapples with the question of how he could be losing it if the monarchy is divinely ordained. His clothing also reveals this struggle.

In the end, stability and power must be restored and both staging and design elements return to formality, signaling to the audience that the power transition will not plunge England into a state of chaos.

The performances in "Richard II" are exquisite and give the Shakespeare fan a taste of the traditional, finely crafted production.

It's full of subtle and masterful choices about how to see the human experience underneath the pomp and then be able to snap back into stately order, divinely ordained or not.

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